Heartbeat

by Sharon Creech

Book Overview

Newbery Medalist Creech (Walk Two Moons) masterfully weaves this story, told in free verse, about a young girl finding her identity and learning how it fits within the many rhythms of life. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0439764009
• ISBN13: 9780439764001
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: Scholastic
• Length: 180 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Wow!

Wow. Amazing narrative poetry of a very self-aware young girl. Annie is a runner and an artist. Her mother is expecting a new baby, her grandfather has Alzheimer's and is slowly slipping away, and she spends a lot of time with her neighbor and competitive friend Max. The novel made charming use of footnotes and grammar. It's a poignant and beautifully told tale, with simplicity and heart. I wept. It was beautiful.

Thump-thump, thump-thump

This is an awesome book!! In the book the main character is a twelve year old girl named Annie and she loves to run. Her favorite thing to do is run barefoot through the park with her friend Max, and she does this every season, winter, spring, summer and fall. I agree with her statement in the book, "Thump-thump, thump-thump... knowing I could fly fly fly, but letting my feet... thump-thump, thump-thump... touch the earth." I love to run, just like Annie does, and I feel the same way when I run. I feel as though I can just pick my feet up off the ground and I could fly away from all my troubles. I also liked the book because it was interesting. It described how Annie was dealing with having the same problems that most teenagers go through. She talked about school, friends, family and teachers that made her upset, confused or angry, just like what we go through. She found a way to deal with her problems..... by running. In the book she says that running makes her feel free and happy. I also liked that, in the book, Annie had to draw 1 picture of an apple every day until she had 100 pictures. I think that that showed how things change everyday and there no way to control it. She finds that out in the book, that almost nothing ever stays the same.

Creech does it again

Sharon Creech never fails to wring at at least a bit of emotion out of me and she did it again with the relationship between Annie and her failing grandpa. This is a simple story told in an interesting way and it deals with some pretty deep subject matter. I wasn't as moved by this book as I was by Creech's Love That Dog, which is written in the same prose, but this story is much more complex and less emotion based. It is a very good book. As a teacher I would recommend it to fifth or sixth grade girls.

Exquisite book- great for reluctant readers and more

It is so rare to find a book told from the point of view of a 12 year old that anybody over 12 could bear to read! This book is a great book for reluctant readers- told in a loose poem form, it is highly readable, moves along quickly, and has a wonderful rhythm to it. It is wonderful for children whose life is in flux (which means just about all 10-13 year olds- a tough age for books, as they have outgrown a lot of the children's books but are not necessarily ready for young adult books). Lots of emotional issues flow through the book, but it is still a good choice for children who are uncomfortable with too much intensity in books, as the writing is light and nuanced and the issues are handled with care. However, as another reviewer noted, it is completely different from Walk Two Moons. In our house, that was a good thing, but if you have major WTM fans in your house you might want to look at the preview pages first.

Simple writing that resonates

Annie loves to run and draw. When her teacher assigns them to draw 100 pictures of the same apple, Annie begins to see things in different ways. Her grandfather's forgetfulness and the baby growing inside her mother are part of a rhythm, a heartbeat, that Annie begins to explore. Simple writing underscores it's profound themes. Destined to become a classic.